It is well known that, in order to handle highly pathogenic substances, all work must generally be conducted within safety enclosures so as to confine the pathogenic substances to a sealed area, thereby ensuring the safety of the handlers.
Such safety enclosures commonly comprise isolation glove boxes. Isolation glove boxes generally comprise an enclosure formed out of an impermeable membrane and configured to permit pathogenic substances to be introduced into, and/or removed from, the enclosure. Gloves are formed in a side wall of the enclosure to permit the user to safely manipulate objects contained within the enclosure.
Isolation glove boxes must generally be decontaminated after each use. This is generally done using complex decontamination systems which add significantly to the size, complexity and cost of the isolation glove boxes. Furthermore, such decontamination is generally time-consuming, thus imposing substantial delays between successive uses of a given isolation glove box.
Thus it will be appreciated that isolation glove boxes are typically large, complex and expensive, and generally require time-consuming decontamination between successive uses. Furthermore, such isolation glove boxes must generally be used by qualified personnel. In essence, isolation glove boxes are generally used by specialists working in research or analytical laboratories in the course of conducting substantial and costly investigations.
However, in some circumstances it may only be necessary to carry out a single, relatively simple and inexpensive investigation. In this situation, the use of a traditional isolation glove box can be quite inefficient, requiring the availability of an expensive isolation glove box for the investigation itself, and thereafter tying up that same isolation glove box for a substantial period of time while its contents are purged and its interior decontaminated. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a relatively simple, inexpensive and disposable isolation glove box available for use in simple and inexpensive investigations.
Furthermore, in many situations it would be advantageous to have a lightweight, mobile isolation glove box which can be used initially at a site in the field, and thereafter be transported, in a sealed condition, to a laboratory for completion of the investigation. For example, disease control specialists might wish to collect a sample at a field site, conduct a limited (but safe) initial investigation at the field site, and then transport the sample in a sealed condition to a laboratory for further investigation. By way of further example, where suspicious packages (e.g., possible anthrax packages) are detected by postal authorities or private courier services, it can be desirable to initially examine the suspicious package in the field, within the safety of an isolation glove box, and then, where appropriate, safely transport the suspicious package to a laboratory for further investigation. And by way of still further example, police investigators might wish to initially examine potential evidence at a crime scene, without fear of contaminating the evidence, and then transport that evidence, in an isolated state, to a laboratory for further analysis. Thus it would be advantageous to have available a lightweight, mobile isolation glove box which can be used initially at a site in the field, and thereafter be transported, in a sealed condition, to a laboratory for completion of the investigation.